


The Faraway Here And Now

by gaymingtrash



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 22:17:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5887414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaymingtrash/pseuds/gaymingtrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years after the events of Arcadia Bay, Chloe looks at what her life is now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Faraway Here And Now

When Chloe thought of running away to California with Rachel Amber all those years ago, she didn’t think it would be like it was now. They would have found a biker gang, somewhere, seduced their way in and gone on wild adventures. They’d get busted by the police at some point, of course, for committing some _mostly_ insignificant crime, but they’d make it away by the skin of their teeth and a screech of burnt rubber. They’d make the headlines, and Rachel would cash in on the media attention to kick off her modeling career, and the two of them would be set for life.

The flat she lived in now was small, and there were no bikers, and there was no Rachel, but it was California, and it was far from the shithole of Arcadia Bay, and it was hers. Ish.

Outside the toxic high school environment of cliques and clubs and a campus that said ‘everybody here is richer than you’, she sat the exams for her GED, and then began a Physics distance learning course at university. It turned out all that crazy shit she went through before with time travel and chaos theory, weirdly, made her interested in stuff like time travel and chaos theory.

A small ‘click’ in the background drew her attention away from the window she was looking out of. She could kind of see the sea out of it, if she imagined that all the buildings weren’t there. It was the right direction, anyway.

“Mad Max,” Chloe grinned as she spun round on one foot. “Shouldn’t you be working?”

“It’s called a lunch break, Chloe?” Max pointed out.

“And here I thought you were meant to be a starving artist!” Chloe replied, in mock horror.

“Mm-hm, yep,” Max agreed, seemingly distracted by the photo print coming from her camera. “You look so beautiful, backlit like that, you know?”

Chloe rolled her eyes, but she made “give it here” gestures towards the print in Max’s hand regardless. Having a photographer girlfriend did do good things for her ego, particularly when she found her own face framed in a print hanging in a gallery admired by hundreds, maybe thousands. Though she was pretty sure her roots were showing in that picture, but Max reassured her that it was all okay, because it was _art_.

She took the photo from Max and turned back to the window so that it wasn’t in her own shadow. She did look good in the photo, it turned out - beautiful, even. As Max wrapped her arms around her waist, planting a gentle kiss on her shoulder, she realised that this kind of California was exactly where she wanted to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so one of the songs on the LIS soundtrack is In My Mind by Amanda Palmer, and I felt like it was a good song for Chloe, because it's all about how she thinks things will be better _later_ when she pays back Frank, when she goes to California, when people just _stop letting her down for once_ , and she becomes a better person. Somehow. So that's what I had in mind here.
> 
> This was originally meant to be part of something longer, but I liked it how it stood on its own. I hope you liked it too!
> 
> If you want to chat or see what I'm like as a human being or anything, you can find me on tumblr as kalebtrevelyan


End file.
